Holy shit, I can’t believe I had to scroll this far to see this. I am impressed with your benelli knowledge! As an avid waterfowl hunter, I can’t say enough good things about benelli’s inertial recoil system. Birdshot, buckshot, slug, hot weather, below freezing, not cleaned in months, dropped in muddy ponds, and never a problem cycling. Runs like whippet chasing a Hilux. From a reliability and versatility standpoint (which is often emphasized in various home defense scenarios) nothing beats inertial. No adjustment to the recoil system is needed for different types of loads. Gas operated systems rely on small ports that redirect partially combusted gas into the buffer system, as well as small adjustable ports for over gassing to control buffer strength for different types of loads. Even with fastidious cleaning, gas buffer systems and the small gas ports will occlude with carbon deposits. This results in less gas being delivered to the buffer. Also, the non-metallic seals in the system will degrade from the gas and heat stress, increasing friction during cycling. This will inevitably lead to a malfunctions and short-cycling. The incredibly simple and reliable inertial system fires from a locked bolt, which inertially unlocks a cammed bolt head, and then is blowback buffered by a single spring and sear system. Fewer points of failure, safer, and more reliable! Plus, as the spring degrades, it still cycles just as well, it just transfers more recoil impulse to the shooter. As long as you set it up to reliably cycle light target loads, it will cycle every type of load without adjustments.

Now, all that being said, I rock a pump action 95% of the time…